Video Explores History of Peekskill Basketball and Players

By ANNE C. FULLAM

Published: April 12, 1998

PEEKSKILL—
BASKETBALL is so hot that when the Los Angeles Lakers play, celebrities like Jack Nicholson are always courtside.

But long before California discovered basketball, Peekskill knew it was a good thing. In fact, the city's love affair with its Red Devils dates to 1930.

A hilly city of wooden row houses and heavily treed sidewalks, Peekskill is perched above the Hudson River, a location that figured in its role as a Revolutionary War headquarters. Peekskill is replete with all kinds of history, including manufacturing cast-iron coal stoves and Crayola crayons and the fact that Abraham Lincoln stopped here briefly in 1861, but it is basketball that grabs people here.

Gov. George E. Pataki can be seen as a bespectacled 1962 Red Devil in ''Peekskill High School Basketball: A City and School of Champions,'' a recently released videotape. The Governor can also be seen as a spectator in the stands at more recent games covered by the tape.

''It was one of the great experiences in my life,'' Governor Pataki said. ''We played together with a sense of teamwork and friendship. It was a truly wonderful experience being with a team. We hung together. Those friendships are still among my strongest today. I go to games and see people I haven't seen since I was 10 or 11 years old.''

''He was a great coach,'' Mr. Pataki said of Coach Walter Moro. ''There wasn't a team that worked harder. It didn't matter how many points you scored or lost, it was how the team worked. In government, business, with family and friends, those are still valuable lessons.

''We learned that people have different strengths and weaknesses, and the team makes up for everyone's deficiencies. We protected each other from each other's weaknesses.

''I also had him as a teacher, and he made math fun. He would go through the math real quickly, and we always had three or four minutes at the end of class. Then we had some hilarious event, or he would tell stories of his war experiences.

''One of the beauties of Peekskill is that people like Walter have been around 40 years or more,'' Mr. Pataki said.

State champions in recent years, the Red Devils were champions in the eyes of Peekskill's youngsters and adults right from the start.

Only three coaches have led the team since 1931, and it would seem from the rosters that only a few families have played as well. Fathers, sons, grandsons, nephews and siblings played decade after decade as one of the Five Fingers, as the team's legendary defense squad is known.

Some families just watched. Generations of spectators can also be seen in the stands.

''My father took me to the games,'' said Mike Miner, who produced and edited the tape. Mr. Miner, a Peekskill High School graduate who never played basketball, is a producer at WPIX-TV, Channel 11, in Manhattan.

''I had a library of tapes of games, and I was going to produce something on the state championships, but my dad suggested that I do a history of the team,'' Mr. Miner said. ''It's something I grew up with. I enjoyed those games a lot, and this was my way of paying back.''

Narrated by Gerry Desmond, the voice of radio station WLNA's basketball coverage for many years, the tape is fun to watch even if the viewer has never been to Peekskill.

Opening shots include a 1930's team running laps in the gym. Basketball players were heftier then. Muscled legs pump past, topped by uniforms that look like the one-piece bathing suits of the era. Today's skinny legs in baggy shorts sharply contrast with the earlier look of the game.

Mr. Miner tracked down many players whom he interviewed for the tape. They speak glowingly of the coaches, the teams and the stars of their eras. A fond glow emanates from all of them. So, who was the best?

Was it the legendary 1933-to-1934 Red Devils, led by George Peterson, a chemistry teacher and track coach who coached basketball from 1931 to 1957? Or the 1967 to 1968 undefeated team, molded into ''five fingers'' by John Moro, a math teacher and coach from 1957 to 1983?

The third-generation Red Devil Lou Panzanaro Jr. coaches now. His 1994 and 1995 teams were the first in state history to win consecutive championships. Are they the best?

Walter Corney saw them all. He is the Peekskill Recreation Department coach who gets playground players started playing as team members rather than as individuals.

''Brickhouse was the greatest player,'' Mr. Corney said, referring to Bill (Buck) Brickhouse, a Red Devil in 1966 and 1967. ''He was a high scorer. He could shoot with both hands. He could move with the ball, dribbling equally well with either hand.''

The Westchester Sports Hall of Famer Bill Strumke, a Red Devil in 1954 who averaged 22 points a game, went on to become a Los Angeles Ram in 1962. In fact, during his tenure as a Red Devil, five football players made all-county in basketball.

Mr. Strumke played under Coach Peterson. ''I always gave it 110 percent, even when I didn't want to,'' Mr. Strumke said on the tape.

While Coach Peterson was respected, Coach Moro was revered.

''Coach Moro took me under his wing,'' said Tony Franich, a 1957 Red Devil who, in 1958, played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. ''I didn't have a mom or a dad.''

Mr. Franich remembers some quick switches that occurred during games. ''I went to the foul line a few times for a look-alike,'' Mr. Franich said. ''The other guy couldn't shoot too well.''

A practice exercise used by Coach Moro was to swing a javelin in circles at varying heights, with players jumping high when the pole came their way.

Another Red Devil on Mr. Franich's team was John Kissinger.

''I was so nervous I couldn't pull the trigger,'' said Mr. Kissinger, interviewed on the tape, referring to his first game under Coach Moro.

Kenny Duke, a 1960 Red Devil who played professional football before retiring to become a school social worker, recalled: ''He took us to the Garden to see college and professional games. He tried to impress upon us that basketball was important, but it was a means to an end. He was a teacher, and academics were important to him also.''

Some pranks are recalled.

Bill Johnson, a former member of the Peekskill City Council, remembered a night he scored 37 points in a game against Port Chester.

''It was one of those nights, when everything I shot went into the basket, even a half-court hook,'' Mr. Johnson said. ''But I almost didn't get out there. Somebody stole my shorts.''

Mr. Johnson added: ''Outside of my marriage, the birth of my two children and being voted Deputy Mayor of the city of Peekskill, the greatest memories in my life are from when I played for Peekskill.''

The running time of the tape is 110 minutes. It is available for $19.95 at the Peekskill Chamber of Commerce, 1 South Division Street, Peekskill, or by mail, with a $3 shipping and handling fee, from Mike Miner, Post Office Box 384, Peekskill, N.Y. 10566. Part of the proceeds goes to the Peekskill Basketball Club.

Photos: Mike Miner, left, Gerry Desmond, center, and Walter Corney, in the gym of Peekskill High School. The basketball hall of fame wall at Peekskill High School. (Photographs by Richard Harbus for The New York Times)